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Thanks Ewesheep I should have listened to you along time ago and I wouldn't have had to go through all this! I wont be so hardheaded next time you try and tell me something. LOL You know I really apprieate all the support youve given me since I started with my chickens and joined BYC all the folks here are always so kind and understanding.
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Yes your right I never would have had the first Rooster if the hatchery hadn't sent them as warmer chicks, but they did and I fell in love with them too. And didn't have the heart to cull them when I should have. Like they say live and learn. but some of these lessons are very hard.
You will make the right one Im sure, good luck with whatever you decide to do. It won't be easy, but you will make the right decision thats best for you.
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our local zoo its called Scovell xoo and I have no Idea what they fed them too, and have no desire to know. I just dropped them off and walked away, Thats all I could do.
You definitely did the right thing - we had three last year and they were constantly fighting and the girls were miserable. The gentlest one stayed and the other two hit the freezer. We could tell a difference the next day - everybody's happier!
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our local zoo its called Scovell xoo and I have no Idea what they fed them too, and have no desire to know. I just dropped them off and walked away, Thats all I could do.
Yes they will butcher the chickens and feed the big chickens to the bigger animals, like the alligators and the bantams and chicks to smaller reptiles. Once in a while, there would be someone who works at the zoo would give the chickens a good home on their farm (like my Sandhill Preservation Polish birds, a lady worked there wanted them and took them to her farm) or raise them up from chicks to meat age. Once in a while they would get so many chicks, they would put them down and stock them in the freezer for the winter months or "short" months for feeding their reptiles. They do not feed chickens that are alive for the cheetahs to "work for their dinner" type of scenario.
To get rid of the extra roos, it is a great way of donating food to the zoo animals and you are helping out the zoo too because they are facing real economic problems in feeding the expensive animals such as the meat eating animals, alligators, crocs, cheetahs, lions, snakes. I know Dave Webster really appreciate the chicken folks to help out the zoo.
If they were to keep chickens for the petting zoo, they would have to be quarantined, tested for all diseases, wormed, etc. and it does get expensive so it is not often they would do that.